“Without standards, many meals will remain unhealthy and unappetising.”
Seventy-five per cent of hospital nosh contained more saturated fat than a
Big Mac, while 60 per cent had more salt, experts discovered.

And 40 per cent of meals had higher saturated fat levels than a 9in Pizza Hut
pepperoni pizza. The stodgy fare helps explain why 30million dishes a year
go uneaten in English hospitals, despite £50million spent in the past decade
to improve them.

She said: “Salt and saturated fat is linked to heart disease and strokes.

“Hospitals should provide tasty and healthy meals, rather than ones that
could lead to more health problems.”

The probe by Mr Jackson’s Sustain group examined 25 meals from the NHS Supply
Chain, which provides food to almost every hospital trust.

The crusade — which includes the Patients Association and organic farming
charity the Soil Association — is now urging MPs to table a Transforming
Hospital Food Bill, discussed in the Commons for the first time this week.

The Department of Health said hospitals decided diets but admitted yesterday:
“There’s no excuse for any hospital offering poor quality food.”